FTFA:"This is clearly great news for North Dakota and great news for the nation," Hoeven said. "It will further serve to enhance our state's role as an energy powerhouse for the nation. More than two years ago I persuaded former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to initiate a new USGS study of the Williston Basin to stimulate more private-sector investment in infrastructure like housing, hotels, retail stores and other services to meet the needs of a rapidly growing western North Dakota. This new USGS study further confirms and reinforces the fact that the Williston Basin is a sustainable, long-term play warranting strong private-sector investment for decades into the future."

In the meantime, gasoline will go up to $7.50 per gallon, and natural gas will be so expensive that only rich people will be able to afford to heat their homes with it. The rest of the world will move away from natural gas and oil to other fuel sources. Fifty years from now, our grandchildren will be wanting to know WTF we were thinking.

Praise Obama! We all knew he'd come through and put more oil in the ground!!

RedPhoenix122:Charlie Freak: This state was a lot more fun before Big Oil showed up with their right-wing lobby friends and turned it into a social conservative playground. This all but guarantees more of the same.

On the bright side, they might actually get around to fixing the damn roads.

You mean I won't see gas prices of $.99/gal again? Dammit Obama!

It will slow down the price creep and keep most of that money in America at least. The cost of recovering shale oil has a price floor. Just like how they're building a plant here to turn LNG into diesel. The cost would be about $1.30 per gallon of diesel but that's not going to be the price they sell it for.

The good news: we have accessible reservesThe bad news: our zeal to be "energy independent" doesn't change the price of gas

/personally I think it's a better strategy to keep burning imported oil while it's cheap and plentiful//then if things do get tight we don't need to import as much, if any at all, to meet our national interests///YMMV

Mrbogey:Praise Obama! We all knew he'd come through and put more oil in the ground!!

RedPhoenix122: Charlie Freak: This state was a lot more fun before Big Oil showed up with their right-wing lobby friends and turned it into a social conservative playground. This all but guarantees more of the same.

On the bright side, they might actually get around to fixing the damn roads.

You mean I won't see gas prices of $.99/gal again? Dammit Obama!

It will slow down the price creep and keep most of that money in America at least. The cost of recovering shale oil has a price floor. Just like how they're building a plant here to turn LNG into diesel. The cost would be about $1.30 per gallon of diesel but that's not going to be the price they sell it for.

In all seriousness, I doubt the price at the pump will change. They'll just make some backroom agreements on how much to put out per day to keep supply low enough to drive up prices.

UsikFark:Lukeonia1: FTA: The report also estimates there to be 0.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Meanwhile, that natural gas is all being flared off because they can't earn enough selling it to justify building the infrastructure to recover it. The flares are visible from space.

That's so sad. I hope they are at least collecting the helium, if the concentrations are high enough.

Gas goes to flare all the time. When wells or gas plants are serviced, the output is frequently sent to flare. That happens far less frequently than it used to. These days, it's common for gas-fired electrical cogen stations to be built near gas plants to benefit from production or fuel gas that would have previously gone up the stack. But flaring will never be zero- it's how lines are purged prior to servicing.

Lukeonia1:FTA: The report also estimates there to be 0.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Meanwhile, that natural gas is all being flared off because they can't earn enough selling it to justify building the infrastructure to recover it. The flares are visible from space.

No citation... told by customers in the industry that the main problem until recently was technology--they were unable to contain it, package it, and make it into something they could sell. Now, the main problem is catching up. They have the problem of storage--to keep up production of liquid petroleum they have to let the gas blow by, because you can't exactly let it puddle on the ground or flow it into an above-ground pool. It is either burn it or vent it (venting not allowed for obvious reasons) for want of storage or transport, and they are busting ass to get the gas into production everywhere. Liquid is easy to store and transport, compared to vapor.

Not that they haven't had this problem from the very start and should have foreseen the polite request that they knock it off with all the burning. Surely it is a contributor to global [INSERT CAUSE]. They are stupid for not being on the ball. The development of recovery technology has been too slow. They missed out, we missed out--but it *is* happening.

My company sells starters, alternators and automotive electronics to industrial and municipal fleets as well as to the general public and businesses. We have seen a large increase in customers running vapor fuel, especially on the last 2-5 years. One of our oldest customers now specializes in conversions. My unscientific appraisal of fleets and equipment that have converted to natural gas is that their under-hood components have longer service lives. The only factor that has changed is the removal of gasoline or diesel from the system--run it on literal gas and the fiddly bits last significantly longer. Starter and alternator cores from vapor based systems tend to be less greasy and longer lived then their liquid fuel cousins. Components like relays, sensors and lowly harnesses have longer service lives as a result of reduced under-hood grime--an effect which must be cutting into our consumption of steel, copper and brass. This effect is hard to measure, but it definitely exists.

When you talk to fleet supervisors about reduced maintenance costs, you have to duck to avoid being concussed by the resultant erections. These are the people that will demand nation wide vapor fuel stations and elicit an actual result, something that electric vehicle proponents can only wish for. Change will come incrementally as over-the-road fleets create demand for vapor fuel at truck stops.

Any exhaust guys out there? Any reduction in corrosion on your vapor fuel equipment? I know the mechanics like it. Of course, the lubricant has to be liquid, but who knows if that will be the case in the long run?

The amusing thing is that the *GREEN* transition to vapor fuel is relatively spontaneous. No celebrities flailing their egos in distress, no silly hippie histrionics, no coalition against this or that; Companies are choosing to use vapor fuel because it is better, not because it is popular. Z O M G